Jack's blog number 3
Updated: Feb 6, 2022
It has been about a month since we did our last blogs and we have seen two new countries and this is what we’ve done.
Riding a pony
In Lesotho, at a campsite called Malealea lodge we went on an exciting two day walk with lovely ponies to a fun village. The ponies were called My Lady, My Love and Mara. When you ride a pony, if you pull the rein left, the pony will go left, if you pull right the pony will go right, if you pull up the pony will stop or go. When we got to the Basotho village we played two intense games of football with the villages children: the first game the score was 3:15 and the other was 12:6.
Injuries
Through the trip we have had some serious injuries. I stepped on a sharp thorn that gave me an 11mm splinter on the side of my foot that had to be dug out by dad’s sharpest knife and emergency tweezers. It was agony feeling dad stick the knife into my foot. I screamed so loud that people from another site came to check I was OK. Dad stubbed his toe hard and either dislocated or broke it and dad reset it himself. Sammy tore off his skin and his toenail violently. Mum had a suspected mango fly maggot boil. I had mosquito bites all over my body. But we are all ok except dad has still got a broken toe.
Fossils
In Namibia at a campsite called mesosaurus camp we found some extreme fossils of a dinosaur called mesosaurus. The mighty mesosaurus was a water dinosaur about a meter long and has got weak teeth to catch small animals and some tiny fish. Scientists knew that Africa and South America were connected because some of the fossils were in Namibia and some were in Brazil. We saw a coprolite, which means poo that has been fossilised over the years and hardened into brown rock.
Wild swimming
At a campsite called Oaksrest Vineyard we swam in a really warm and deep lake. We jumped off a long wooden platform called a pontoon and played with an entertaining rubber tyre called an inner tube. At a place called Rivierzicht there was a river that was warm and soft with lovely sand. At malealea lodge we went to a small canyon and found some fun water slides that were again very warm and deep. At a lodge called Lake Navarone we did a walk and arrived at a pool where you can jump off a low waterfall into a deep, small and cold wild pool.
That has been what we’ve done - we will update you again some time near Easter. Have A Happy Year.